It is known to provide motor vehicle seats with one or more air-bags configured so that the air-bag may be inflated in a side impact crash situation, in order to provide lateral protection to an occupant of the seat. A typical such known type of arrangement comprises an air-bag module mounted to the back-rest of a vehicle seat, the air-bag module being arranged so that the air-bag is inflated in a forwards direction relative to the back-rest, such that the air-bag is deployed to the side of an occupant of the seat. In this manner, the inflated air-bag extends between the occupant and the side panel, door or window of the motor vehicle.
The above-mentioned type of vehicle seat and “side air-bag” arrangement can suffer from disadvantages. For example, in current side air-bag systems of the general type described above, there can be a significant distance separating an occupant of the seat and the air-bag during the early stages of deployment of the air-bag. If this is the case, then it is possible for the occupant of the seat, whose body moves relative to the seat in the event of a side impact crash situation by virtue of its inertia, may not immediately bear against the inflating air-bag.
Also, it is important for a side air-bag mounted to the back-rest of a vehicle seat to deploy in a manner which does not interfere with a person occupying the seat in an abnormal position, such as, for example, where the occupant may be leaning to one side so that part of the occupant's body lies in front of the air-bag rather than to the side of the air-bag. A conventional side air-bag inflating in a forwards direction could directly contact a seat occupant sitting in such a position.